Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

A Change in the Tide

Chapter 8: Second Attack

"No. Absolutely not!"

The door was slammed in his face. "Please. Miss Evans. You have to see him tonight."

"Sirius, I already told you no. I will not go see him. He is a rude and arrogant pirate. Besides, I am sure he doesn't want to see me either."

There was a long pause before Sirius banged his fist on her door. "Please, let me in at least." Just as Sirius was about to push the door down, Lily opened it for him. Sirius, not prepared for the sudden action, stumbled through the doorway.

He looked up and saw balls of fire in Evans' eyes. She was extremely angry.

"Now, before you murder me, hear me out. James really isn't a bad guy. He is actually one of the nicest people I have ever met. I mean, he is my best friend. And let me tell you something, he can be just as stubborn as you. It took quite a lot of convincing for me to get him to agree to this. Now will you just…"

"Wait, he agreed to this. Whoa," Lily laughed unbelievingly.

"Trust me, he was not as willing as I had hoped, but I am proud of him for wanting a change. You, on the other hand, have no faith in your captain or myself and refuse to see any good in this situation. You are just afraid to see a nice guy in James," Sirius said. "Wow! I just realized that he has already proven himself the better man in this case because he was willing to face his enemy."

"What?" Lily said, her face contorted in confusion. After what Sirius said sunk in, Lily responded, "Fine, I'll have dinner with him tonight. I cannot allow Potter to appear as though he is better than me." Sirius leaped in the air. "You're gonna be there though, right, Sirius?"

"Um, yeah, sure, Remus and I'll join you for dinner tonight." And with that, the two departed for their day's chores.

Sirius walked the familiar hallways of The Phoenix which had been his home for quite a few years now. When he reached the Captain's cabin, he lightly tapped on the door.

"Come in," said a clam voice.

Sirius opened the door to see Captain Potter sitting at his desk with a map in his hands. James looked up and a smile grew on his face.

"How's everything, Sirius?"

"Everything's fine," Sirius said, thinking about how they mended their friendship yesterday. "Hey," Sirius started, changing the subject. "I talked to Evans this morning."

James' eyes widened. "About what?" James asked intrigued.

"Well," Sirius noticed how his friend tensed up nervously when he mentioned Miss Evans. "I asked her about what she thought about having dinner with you tonight."

James saw a mischievous glint in Sirius' eye. "Really? What did she say about that?"

"Well, Miss Evans was extremely angered by the mere mention of you. She outright refused the invitation," Sirius paused for a moment to watch James' reaction. The captain looked slightly disappointed. "Actually, she didn't believe me when I said that you had agreed to it in the first place. Of course, in the end, I got her to agree to having dinner with you, as long as Remus and I joined you," Sirius chuckled and added, "You know, I can be quite persuasive. She is just as stubborn as you, if not more so."

James snorted and added, "That's hard to believe."

"Oh, trust me when I say it's true."

The conversation eventually moved to other things concerning their lives as pirates.

"We should reach a port in Singapore in roughly two to three weeks. Ugh, it is taking much too long," James said in frustration.

"It wouldn't have taken this long if we didn't have Miss Evans aboard."

"I know, I know. There's just nothing we can do to change that now, though."

"Just saying the truth, but you know that she has been a help…"

Sirius and James were interrupted by the door opening. There stood Remus with a serious expression on his face.

"Captain, I think you might want to see this." Both Sirius and James followed Remus to the upper deck to see what all the commotion was about.

Most of the crew was looking out in the distance. Peter shouted from the crow's nest, "I think that there is a ship heading our way from the west." James looked around, and indeed, he could faintly make out the shape of a ship.

"Peter, can you see the flag?" James asked, growing slightly uneasy.

Peter peered through his telescope and jumped. "It's a pirate ship," Peter screeched, obviously frightened. The rest of the crew began to scurry around in fear.

Lily walked up the stairs to tell the men it was time for lunch. She reached the top step and was surprised to see all of the men frantically running around and screaming. From what she could hear, they were yelling about "pirates". The men were quieted down by a loud booming voice.

James could not believe how cowardly his men were behaving. He stood up on a barrel and shouted for everyone to be quiet. Once the men had achieved silence, James continued. "Why are you all acting this way? We have faced pirates before. Maybe not in a couple of years, certainly not whilst I have been captain, but there is no reason to be acting like this. If anyone had seen us just now, they would have seen weakness. We are not weak and we should give them no reason to underestimate us. Now, I know that our last fight against pirates was not a huge success, in fact, many of our friends lost their lives, but we have to fight. If you are still not convinced, think about how their deaths would be in vain if you didn't. Now, we will all go out and fight bravely. May God bless us all." There was a moment of silence before Captain Potter spat out orders to his men.

Lily watched in admiration as James inspired his men to fight. She saw tears in many of the crew's eyes as they remembered their lost loved ones. She saw how the men had a new hope and desire to fight. Lost in all of the passion, Lily forgot about what she was supposed to do during the attack. It was when the first cannon was fired that she was shaken out of her stupor.

"Fire," James yelled. There was the familiar boom of the cannon as it sailed and missed the enemy ship. There was a nervousness that settled in his stomach as he thought about their last fight against pirates. It had been a month before Captain Clark had died. Many pirates on both sides were killed but there had been a great many more from The Phoenix. It was shortly after that fight that Sirius, Remus, and Peter joined the crew as the ship was in need of men.

James wasn't sure if he could successfully lead his men against another pirate's ship, but he knew that he had to at least try.

Scared to death, Lily ran to her cabin at the bottom of the ship, hoping that no one would find her down there. She waited for several minutes until she heard people boarding The Phoenix. She trembled at the thought of other pirates. There was no guarantee that she would be spared if she were to be captured. Most pirates are not as nice as Captain Potter's crew. 'The crew, what if someone dies. What if… what if Sirius or Remus get killed. What if Peter or George were killed. Oh that would be awful.' Lily choked up as tears rolled down her cheeks. 'What if Potter dies, I'd never have had the chance to get to know him.' Lily was horrified by her thoughts and hoped against all odds that all of the men would live.

When the two ships were close, men from both ships began boarding the other ship. Swords were flashing everywhere as pirates faced their opponent. James ran from one enemy to another, swiftly killing them and then moving on.

Suddenly, James' breath was cut short when he was grabbed around his neck from behind. Struggling to breath, James desperately tried to loosen the man's death grip. He was spared the need when suddenly the man let go of him and dropped to the floor, blood pooling around his body. Relieved, James looked up to see Sirius. The two men shared a brief thank you before turning around to fight again.

This continued for several minutes. James looked around and saw Sirius fighting a very large man. Sirius was about to kill his opponent when a small man from behind ran up to Sirius and pulled out a knife. Without much time to think, James screamed for Sirius to move and jumped, pushing Sirius out of the way of the man. Both James and Sirius painfully tumbled down although, thankfully, neither of them had been stabbed. Quickly, they regained their footing and fought the two men who tried to kill them.

Through their team work, Sirius and James successfully disarmed their opponents and knocked them unconscious. It was then that James heard someone shout his name. "James, James!" James saw that it was Remus yelling. He was pointing behind James while shouting, "Miss Evans!"

James felt his stomach tighten as he turned around and saw Miss Evans, arms flailing and legs kicking, being carried onto the other ship by an enemy pirate.

A/N: I am sorry about not updating in a while. I should be able to update often now though, because soccer season is over.

I hope you liked this chapter. Please tell me what you think. Reviews are greatly appreciated.